It came only a few days after the Cal Expo board closed the door on an NBA-backed plan to move the State Fair of California to Arco Arena site to help finance a new downtown arena.

The Maloof brothers have diligently done what they can to get a new arena for a team that was consistently good but never great. It left them hamstrung in a chance for lottery picks to get better overnight.

The Kings peaked in 2002 when they went 61-21 and had the best record in the league. But Robert Horry and Kobe Bryant helped the Los Angeles Lakers escape with a tough seven-game victory over Sacramento. The franchise has never been the same since then.

Even having former NBA point guard Kevin Johnson as the mayor apparently hasn’t helped Sacramento’s chances of getting a new arena. It’s coming at a time with high taxes and disgruntled voters in the River City.

It will be hard to believe the Maloofs will keep the team there without an assurance they will be getting an arena for their team in the forseeable future. There are too many good markets out there clamoring for a team.

And at the top of the list is Las Vegas, where the Maloof family owns the Palms Casino Resort.

Could the Kings pack up and move to Glitter Gulch, where they would be a glitzy addition to a virgin market in terms of big-league frachises?

We’ll have to see.

And remember this. Before a group led by Peter Holt bought the Spurs, the Maloofs came to San Antonio to kick the tires of the professional sports franchise than was then owned by a consortium headed by the late Robert McDermott.

How close the Maloofs came to buying a controlling interest in the team has never been revealed.

But the importance of winning a championship helped propel the Spurs into the AT&T Arena.

“Big Shot Rob” and Bryant kept the Kings from ever making it that far.